“Grauvogel’s Wonder Reptile”: New Fossil Unearths a 247-Million-Year-Old Mystery

“Grauvogel’s Wonder Reptile”: New Fossil Unearths a 247-Million-Year-Old Mystery
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Scientists have announced a remarkable new fossil discovery: a tree-dwelling reptile from the early Middle Triassic period, named Mirasaura grauvogeli (meaning “Grauvogel’s Wonder Reptile”), which lived approximately 247 million years ago, SciTech Daily reported. The find is significant because of a unique dorsal crest on the reptile’s back, which is lined with complex, feather-like skin appendages that are unlike anything seen before.

These appendages, which are thought to have been used for visual communication, are composed of numerous densely packed structures. While they have a feather-like outline, they lack the fine, branching filaments (barbs) found on modern feathers.

The Mirasaura fossil also features a distinctive bird-like skull with a narrow, mostly toothless snout, large forward-facing eye sockets, and a large, domed cranium. Its body was adapted for an arboreal lifestyle, with grasping forelimbs, a long barrel-shaped body, a prehensile tail, and hands designed for gripping branches.